Sports

Friday, December 20, 2002

Eagle teams face Cranes, 'Cats tonight

The Pecos Eagle boys will try to play better and extend their two-game
winning streak, while Pecos' girls will hope to play better and end a three-game
losing streak tonight, when the boys travel to Crane and the girls host Wink
in their final games before the Christmas holiday.

The girls, 4-4 on the season, will host the Wildcats in junior varsity
and varsity games set for 6 and 7:30 p.m. at the Pecos High School gym. The
boys, 6-6 on the season, will go to Crane for freshmen, JV and varsity games,
at 4:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m.

The girls have been off since last weekend, when they were beaten badly
in three games at the Stanton Tournament. Pecos lost to Midland Christian
and District 4-3A rivals Kermit and Greenwood, the last by a 57-27 score
on Saturday.

"We were just playing scared. That's what it looked like," said Eagles'
coach Veronica Valenzuela, who said Pecos committed 26 turnovers in their
loss to Kermit and 31 in the loss to Greenwood.

Stephanie Herrera led the Eagles with 10 points in their loss to the Rangerettes,
who the Eagles could see again as early as next week, in the Iraan Tournament.
District rivals Fort Stockton and Presidio will also be at that tournament,
as will Wink, who the Eagles have not faced in basketball for the past several
seasons.

The Eagle boys have yet to face Crane this season, but have had problems
against the Golden Cranes in recent years. "They were ranked 22nd
(in Class 2A) before the start of the season, but they got off to a late
start," said coach Joe Flores.

Crane began its season after football play ended and was beaten last week
by Midland Greenwood, which is still minus some players involved in Saturday's
Class 3A state championship game against Bandera in Waco.

Pecos will be trying to get back over the .500 mark after wins over Presidio
and Alpine. However, Flores was not happy with his team's play overall in
last Monday's 50-39 win over the Bucks and last Saturday's victory over Presidio,
which came following a lopsided loss a week ago to Andrews in the Monahans
Sandhills Tournament.

"Hopefully these last three days of rest will help us against Crane,"
Flores said. While the girls will be back in action the day after Christmas
at the Iraan Tournament, this is the last game for the boys until Dec. 30,
when they host Jal. N.M.

In the win over Alpine, the Eagles led almost all the way, but needed
a series of 3-point shots to stop comeback attempts by the Bucks. Isaiah
Armendariz led Pecos with 13 points and Bino Barreno added 12 for the Eagles.